thestar.com

The second was the flimsiness of the obstructions that were to grow into the Berlin Wall; the zig-zag of barbed wire throughout the city was in some places only 18 inches high. The real deterrent was the presence of patrolling guards, soldiers and police; desperate families who quickly realized the need for action made good their escape through ruins, gardens or backyards that were not guarded. Gradually, however, the barbed wire was coiled higher and more guards were brought in to seal off the last loopholes.

By the end of the first week, the Berlin Wall as we know it today had begun to take shape. Bricks, blocks and poured concrete had superseded the barbed wire. As escapes continued from the windows of tall buildings overlooking the border, these were bricked up, so that sightless buildings staring down into West Berlin became part of the wall itself. Within days, the wall, running for 25 miles through the heart of the city, consisted of an uneven mass of barbed wire and concrete slab, shored-up buildings and stone barriers, patrolled and guarded or under surveillance along its entire length.

* Alan Shadrake, author of The Yellow Pimpernels: Escape Stories Of The Berlin Wall, was there 25 years ago today, when the East Germans and Soviets rolled out the barbed wire that became the notorious Berlin Wall.